Source: The Argus
ON TUESDAY, Feb. 12, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney accompanied his class to the computer lab at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard. He was supposed to complete an English project.
Instead, he approached his classmate Lawrence King and shot him in the head.
Brandon since has been charged with premeditated murder with a hate-crime enhancement. You see, although Brandon has offered no public explanation for his action, it appears he murdered Lawrence because Lawrence was gay.
Classmates report Lawrence had taken to dressing effeminately, had revealed his sexual orientation, had been teased for it, but still had worked up the courage to ask Brandon to be his valentine.
So, Brandon killed him.
"In Ventura County, we've never had a violent shooting like this," Senior Deputy District Attorney Marve Fox said.
And so, the tragedy is repeated.
Another community -- believing it was somehow different, wholesome, safe -- learned too late that ignoring the cruel harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth, as well as the simmering homophobia of those perpetrating it, can lead to catastrophe.
A northern California school district hopes to help end the cycle of intolerance that can lead to such violence by presenting plays for students in the district.
Fremont, although reluctant, began celebrating No Name Calling Week two years ago. Last year, Mission San Jose High School hosted San Francisco's New Conservatory Theater's production of "The Other Side of the Closet," a play dealing specifically with the experience of gay kids.
And on April 21, the school will present to its sophomores the conservatory theater's newest play, "OutSpoken," which explores the broader theme of bullying in general, since gay and lesbian kids aren't the only ones who face it.
To assuage the fears of conservative parents and to motivate other schools to consider the production, the local chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays will sponsor a preview of "OutSpoken," two weeks ahead of Mission San Jose's performance.
PFLAG hopes the play will further the ongoing dialog in the Tri-City area about how to make school safe for all children and how to teach them to accept each other, no matter what their differences.
The parents of both Brandon McInerney and Lawrence King would plead for all of us to attend.
It's happened so many times before, the most famous being Matthew Shepherd's 1998 murder in Laramie, Wyo.; the 1999 Columbine massacre in Jefferson County, Colo. (Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had endured constant insults such as "faggot" and "homo"); and Gwen Araujo's 2002 slaying in Newark.
Each time, as with Fox, school and elected officials claim they are shocked, even though the plight of homosexual youth has been extremely well-documented. For example, 84 percent of gay teens report being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation and that school staff only rarely intervene.
They are three times more likely than their peers to carry a weapon to school.
The truth is, Lawrence's murder could have happened almost anywhere.
Assembly Bill 537, The California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in California public schools.
Nonetheless, most districts ignore the law, fearing a backlash from conservative parents, who argue that to even mention the existence of homosexual students, much less protect them, would be to "advance the gay agenda."
Or, more correctly, most districts ignore AB537 until they are sued for negligence, or somebody dies.
Full article: Teaching acceptance - Inside Bay Area